Does anyone know about the quality of Tread Wright formerly Hi-Tech retreads? These were reccomended to me buy a friend who said his dad has had great luck with them and I'm just looking for some more input. And I know somebody will ask why dont I fork out the extra money for a new set of tires and the answer is I am on a college budget. Thanks

 

I never dealt with them. But I would be interested in hearing from someone who has. The testimonials sound good.

 

nothing good has ever come from re-caps, wait till one blows and takes the front fender or bed side with it. You couldn't pay me enough to put them on as steers

 

Anyone run these tires?

 

I've run Green Diamond Tires, which I believe are a spin off of them. As long as you keep them inflated properly, you'll be fine. I loved the GDT's because of the carbide bits in them, pulled like a mule in the snow or ice. Had pretty good life out of them to, about 25K miles, then they were done. If they made them in a bigger size I'd run them on my trucks year round!

 

i didnt think they would mount them on a steer axle. i know on bigger trucks retreads are drive axles only

brett

 

Yeah, but on a 4 wheeler you can run them wherever you want, who's gonna check?

 

Your insurance company, if you ever have an accident due to a blow out for #1. #2 the coroner. Do what you want, but I wouldn't be caught by #2 having them on my truck!

 

I have run them and had good luck. They are different than a glue on retread, the rubber is put on the carcass and the tread is heat formed like a new tire. I wish they had the highway tread in 305 or 315, I would run them all the time. www.treadwright.com

 

Well if you had ever run retreads that were vulcanized retreads you'd never have complained about them, they're just as safe as any new tire.

I've run them on numerous vehicles and NEVER had a problem with any of them, the only time I regretted them was on my boat trailer, those were glue'd retreads and apparently the heat, saltwater, and sitting in the sun dried up the glue and they started separating, put on a set of vulcanized retreads and tire covers and have never had a problem with them in 5 years with probably 20K miles on them. Its a 24ft Cuddy Cabin with a Tandem axle trailer, weighs about 7400lbs without fuel, so the tires have a fair load on them.

 

I maintain a fleet of near 100 vehicles in my area, and over 5000 nationwide. We have tried retreads. Vulvanized, glued, heck I swear some were even stapled on! No success with any of them. Last retreader was BANDAG. Wasn't any better than the rest. Most lasted less than 10k miles, and when they came apart, the fenders ( body sides on vans) were torn hideously. I'd like to say I have more than a "little" experience with retreads.

 

Are you running these on commercial big rigs or on 4 wheelers?

Proper air inflation and load management will make a huge difference...

Think about how many retreads you see on the side of the highway, maybe a few a month if you run the highway a lot (I see maybe a dozen even when I run the highways pulling horse trailers). Now think about how many heavy trucks are on the highway...The percentage of retreads that blow out is less than 1% I'll bet. Not just that, but most retreaded tires on big rigs are on their 2nd or 3rd retreading at least.

If they were dangerous, they wouldn't be allowed to sell them for anything but off-highway, obviously the DOT thinks they're safe enough to run MILLIONS of miles on them.

 

These are mostly on 1 ton Dodge vans. Have some others on F350's and super duty's, 4500 Chevy's too. They seem to do a little better because of the dual rear wheels, but the Dodge vans just can't keep them on there. Keep tire psi @ 80, which is what is recommended. My biggest thing is I wouldn't even consider having them on steer tires. On my personal vehicles, they will never see retreads. When looking at the cost for what we were paying for them, we could buy a lesser quality brand new tire for 5$ less per tire and haven't had one of them yet to blow out. I convinced my boss, that the recycling effort could be concentrated elsewhere with better results. We have to use so much recycled product for some government b.s. and the recaps were the latest "effort" ! Wasn't worth it for us.

 

Sorry, but re-treads should be illegal.
Its not so bad for the owner of the truck if he messes up the side, but the poor family in the minivan behind you that takes the retread in the windshield is bad.
This happened to me and my Bro. in his RX-7. We were driving faster than the posted speed limit, and a retread flew out of nowwhere and SMACK, shattered his windshield. He pulled off the road and we got out and just about had to clean ourselves.